In
a complicated corportate shuffle, Channel 4 (originally WTCN-TV) was
transformed into WCCO-TV in August 1952. The next year a reborn WTCN-TV
re-entered the television fray as Channel 11. The new WTCN-TV wasted
little time in joining the race for kiddie viewers.

"Skipper
Daryl," allegedly the first kids' show in the Twin Cities to
feature a costumed character, was created for Channel 11 by Daryl Laub
in 1953. Later that year he added a tattered clown called J. P. Patches
to the roster as well.

In
the spring of 1954, one of the Twin Cities' best-remembered children's
characters appeared on WTCN-TV for the first time: engineer Casey Jones,
played by Roger Awsumb.

Thousands
of kids went home from school for "Lunch
with Casey" every day. The mellow motorman would enjoy
a nineteen-year run on "Track 11." In the early years of the
program, Casey's primary foil was Joe the Cook, played by Chris Wedes.

Joe
was part of the show until 1959 when Wedes moved to Seattle to host
his own children's show there -- ironically, in the role of J.P. Patches,
which he had taken over from Daryl Laub when Laub moved to KSTP-TV.

During
the mid-1950s, WTCN-TV also featured "Wrangler Steve"
a cowboy played by Steve Cannon (later a WCCO radio favorite), and "Captain
11" a uniformed space ranger originally played by Jim Lang
(later host of the ABC-TV game show "The Dating Game") and also by the
ubiquitous Chris Wedes. Ultimately, the Captain 11 character was exported
to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he was portrayed by Dave Dedrick
and lasted far longer than the Twin Cities prototype.

The
onscreen fun and games of the local kids' shows masked hardnosed ratings
gamesmanship that was every bit as intense as the battle for adult audiences.
Gene Godt, the promotion director of WCCO-TV, candidly admitted that
the late afternoon time period - the slot for most local children's
programs during the Fifties - was "...the most intensely competitive
90 minutes of television produced locally in our five-station market."

He
also noted that children were "...one of the most important audiences,
for the kids not only directly influence their parents' choice of products,
but to a large extent determine which is the favorite channel on their
family television set."

KSTP-TV's
pioneer program "Jimmy's Junior Jamboree" was an early casualty
of the fierce competition for kiddie viewers. It had garnered good ratings
at first, despite the abysmal quality of its cartoon library, but then
Warner Brothers offered hundreds of their classic cartoons to television.
WTCN-TV acquired the package for their new "J.P. Patches"
show, and -- armed with superior film product -- the clown's ratings
rose while JJJ's numbers steadily declined. The trend proved to be irreversible,
and not even a children's show could be sustained by sentiment. "Jimmy's
Junior Jamboree" was cancelled around October, 1954.

Jimmy
Valentine then saddled up for the Western program "Boots and
Saddles," an hour-long program: for the first 15 minutes they
showed part of an old Western movie, then Jimmy (attired in a cowboy
outfit) did half an hour with the kids in the studio, and the show concluded
with 15 more minutes of the movie. The movie would be continued the
next day.

Meanwhile,
WCCO-TV ("Canal 4" as Axel would later call it) badly needed
a strong entry in the kidvid sweepstakes. It's not surprising that the
station turned to a proven performer like radio veteran Clellan Card.
Although Clellan's kid appeal had been noted as early as the 1930s,
he had always considered himself an entertainer of adults. Not that
there was anything off-color in his routines; it's simply that most
of his humor was aimed at grown-ups.

Clellan
was recruited to play a variation of his wacky Scandinavian character
Axel, a familiar voice on radio since 1937.

To
play Axel's dog Towser, Clellan enlisted the aid of a young actor and
director named Don Stolz, who was building a reputation at the Old Log
Theater in the suburb of Excelsior. The pairing proved to be a winning
combination. The chemistry between Clell and Don would be a key factor
in the success of the new show.

Clellan,
Don, and director Harry Jones worked out the basic premise of the Axel
program, probably during the summer of 1954. They realized that visuals
were crucial in the new medium of TV.

Axel's
costume, like the outfits worn by the classic movie comedians, was simple
yet memorable. A train engineer's cap perched high on his head, the
brim sticking straight up. A bushy mustache erupted from beneath Axel's
nose, making him vaguely resemble an idiotic Adolph Hitler (but apparently
there were no complaints from viewers). He wore a T-shirt with wide
black and white horizontal stripes, intersected by a pair of broad suspenders
that held up his baggy olive-green khakis. To make absolutely sure that
his pants stayed up, Axel added a long rope belt that dangled almost
to his knees.

Right
from the very first program, Axel also brandished his magic spyglass.
Allegedly a telescope, even a small child could see that it was nothing
more than two cardboard tubes, one nested inside the other. Yet somehow,
Axel's spyglass worked - probably because he so convincingly claimed
that it did. He affectionately called it his flute and carefully put
it away after each use, so that "nobody could steal it." He
often talked about it as if it were the latest in modern technology,
and spoke of turning up the "candlepower" to increase its
range.

Once,
he claimed that he could see "... even out to Esther Williams'
house out to California out dere." The distances seemed to grow
greater and greater as time went on, until eventually Axel declared
that, using his spyglass, he could look "clean around the world"
- and see himself!

The
telescope worked beautifully as a transitional device. Every time Axel
squinted into it, he directed the audience's attention to the next cartoon,
short subject, or commercial. Though its appearance would change over
the years, Axel's spyglass became an indelible part of his goofy gestalt
from the moment he first peered through it.

Director
Harry Jones decreed that Axel's dog Towser should remain unseen by the
viewing audience, except for his paw. "I figured that if you really
saw [Towser], all you'd see was some kind of a dumb dog outfit that
would never convince anybody. I always felt very strongly that kids
liked [to use their] imagination. I mean, what did Towser really look
like? Well, we never ever showed Towser on the air."

Viewers
only saw Towser's huge mottled brown paw - actually a sort of gigantic
mitten that fit over Don's entire arm. Yet despite being almost completely
unseen and unable to talk to boot, the mutt was vividly brought to life
by Don Stolz. A canine of indeterminate breed, Towser was Axel's most
trusted friend, and like any dog, he was loyal and eager to please.
Although he couldn't speak English, he definitely could communicate,
using an amazing variety of barks, arfs, growls, howls, yips, yaps,
and yelps. At times, it almost seemed as if Towser could talk.

Somehow,
Axel could always understand what his faithful pooch said. On one show
when he asked Towser, "What aminal is the best timekeeper?",
the dog uttered a staccato series of barks in reply. Axel shook his
head, saying, "No, I think you have the wrong idea there. Try again,
please." Towser barked again and Axel laughingly exclaimed, "Yah,
he's right, a watch dog! Oh well, speaking of time, I s'pose that's
the windup!"

Director
Jones conceived the setting for Axel's shenanigans: a ramshackle tree
house atop a large tree in a forest. "My main philosophy, if you
want to be artsy enough to call it that," he noted modestly, "was
that if you're going to do a kids' show, the setting is very important."
In retrospect, Harry's choice seems utterly perfect, a felicitous blend
of reality and fantasy. To kids, a tree house offered a genuine refuge
from the grown-up world, a place where adults seldom ventured.

Axel's
Treehouse was an idealized version of that childhood daydream, with
the intimate atmosphere of a clubhouse. Anyone with a television set
could join the gang. "It is entirely imaginative," Clellan
declared in 1957. "We've put Axel, a crusty old guy who likes kids,
in a treehouse. It's a good setting for kids' imagination and lends
itself to the stories I tell or the films being run."

Unlike
many kids' TV shows, Axel and His Dog
did not include a "peanut gallery" full of breathless, restless
youngsters. It was felt that seeing the show in the studio would shatter
the illusion for kids. Watching Axel cavort on the mysterious, glowing
cathode screen at home might seem magical; seeing the same thing in
person, divorced from the alchemy of the airwaves, might expose him
as a man in a goofy costume in front of a cheap painted backdrop. Worse,
it would be impossible to prevent a studio audience from seeing Towser's
true identity. That couldn't be allowed to happen -- despite the silliness,
Axel and His Dog always maintained a tantalizing air of mystery.

At
5:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 5, 1954, "Axel
and His Dog" aired for the first time. According to Don
Stolz, it nearly turned out to be the last time as well.

Like
virtually all television programs of the era, it was broadcast live.
Cast and crew had a quick run-through to determine the basic positions
for the two floor cameras, but there really wasn't a proper rehearsal.
There was no script - the show was always basically ad-libbed. WCCO-TV
had been running promotional announcements for the program during the
summer, inviting kids to send in jokes for Axel to read on the air.

This
had netted a stack of postcards chock-full of gags, knock-knocks, and
riddles. In spite of the hectic atmosphere, the first show proceeded
pretty smoothly - until Axel decided that it was time to read some of
those jokes that the kids had sent in.

Plucking
a letter from the pile, he read aloud: "Why does the chicken cross
the road?" Perhaps chuckling at the notion that the first joke
on his new program would be the world's oldest chestnut, Axel read the
punch line before he realized what he was saying: "Because she's
laying the farmer on the other side!" Miraculously, the show wasn't
immediately cancelled.

Although
Axel was apt to say anything at any time, the Saturday morning version
of "Axel and His Dog" was especially wild. "This was
all live, you have to remember that," Don noted. "Clellan
was a night person, and I certainly was, operating a theater, and half
of the floormen were night people, and I'll tell you, anything could
happen on that show at that hour of the morning."

Mary
Davies, who played Carmen the Nurse
for many years, laughed about one New Year's Day when she got home early
in the morning after an evening of revelry, and she just happened to
tune in Axel's show. By this time, a gawky Birdie puppet - a long-necked
spotted fowl with huge fuzzy eyebrows and uncertain taxonomy - had been
added to the program. On this particular morning, the Birdie had an
ice-pack on its head and was reeling back and forth, obviously hung
over. Suddenly, Axel turned to the bird and asked, "Say, Birdie,
can I get you a tuna-fish malted?"

Another
Saturday morning, near the end of the program, Axel said to the kiddies,
"Well, we've been up here in the Tree House for about an hour now,
and you've been up for a while, but I'll bet that your parents are still
in bed. I think it's about time that they got up, too. So, get a glass
of water, go into their bedroom and throw it in their faces, and say,
'Good morning! Time to get up now!'"

After
the show, Don turned to Clellan and said, "I don't think you should
have done that." Affecting an air of unconcern, Clell brushed him
off, saying, "Oh, don't worry about it."

The
two of them had just walked into Clellan's office when the telephone
rang. For some reason, Clell was reluctant to answer his phone, so Don
picked it up and intoned, "Clellan Card's office." The woman
on the other end of the line snarled, "Put that son of a bitch
on!" Don gingerly handed the receiver to Clellan, who answered
with great aplomb, "Helllloooo?" That, however, was the only
thing he had a chance to say, as the woman launched into a furious tirade
-- because, of course, her child had done exactly as Axel had instructed.

Mr. Gallos
hosted a Laurel & Hardy TV show in the Twin Cities, Mn. viewing
area and it was a most popular series, the show had a large following
with adults and kids. Gallos provided information about the comedy team
for his viewers. In the summer of 1988 he attended The Sons Of The Desert's
convention in the Twin Cities where he MC'd a special stage show at
the World Theater. (The World Theater was the stage that was used for
Mr. Garrison Keilor's popular radio comedy series The Prairie Home
Companion.)

Gallos
introduced screenings of a Harold Lloyd comedy titled "Speedy"
(the film also starred Baseball great Babe Ruth and the first Little
Rascal Mr. Ernest Morrison aka "Sunshine Sammy"), "The
Our Gang Follies Of 1938"with Spanky McFarland, Darla Hood, Buckwheat
Thomas,Eugene ("Porky") Lee, Alfala Switzer and Henry (Kleinbach)
Brandon, "Spanky" (the film comedy) and some scenes from L&H's
Babes In Toyland March Of The Wooden Soldiers. Gallos also brought onto
the stage Dorothy De Borba, Ernie Morrison, Spanky,Virigina Karnes Patterson
(Mrs. Patterson played "Mother Goose" in Babes in Toyland,
Rosina Lawrence and Hank Brandon.
It was a wonderful evening. The guest performers talked about their
careers and answered the audiences questions.
Mr. Gallos also appeared at the Sons' convention banquet a few days
later. He was a gentle, kindly and caring person and will be missed.

- Kevin S. Butler

"In
the mid - to late 1960's I remember an early (5am-6:30am) cartoon show
called Siegfried's Saucer, Siegfried's Spaceship or the like.

It was
a half-hour compilation of oddish cartoons. One in particular was about
the prehistoric horse "eohippus". The only image I can remember is of
the eohippus prancing through a primordial forest singing "I am an eohippus,
I am an eohippus...".

Any ideas?
This was in Minneapolis, Minnesota on WCCO-TV (I think). I seem to remember
another short cartoon with a pink(?), pear-shaped(?) character that
sang some gibberish like "...bip-bip-bip-bye-bo... " Thanks for any
information you can provide.

NEW - DON'T MISS THIS: If
you'd like to have Axel's version of "The Night Before Christmas"
but don't want to pay big bucks for the original collector's
item, I offer two different CDs which both contain the 1964 recording
plus various other stuff. The CDs come with color reproductions of the
original packaging (or rare photos) and cost $10 each (plus $4 shipping
per
order). Here are details about the CDs:

AXEL
ARTYFACTS
This collection includes:
1. Axel & His Dog theme song (#1) (fragment)
2. Axel theme song (#2)
3. Axel's version of "The Night Before Christmas" (from TV,
1958)
From a reel-to-reel home tape recording (Note: sound quality is fair
but
listenable)
4. Axel's version of "The Night Before Christmas" (with Carmen,
1964)
From the WCCO-TV Christmas record produced by Allan Lotsberg
5. The Axel TV Show (fragment, 25? December 1964)
6. The Axel TV Show (28 December 1964)
7. The Axel TV Show (31 December 1964)
8. The Axel TV Show (6? January 1965)
9. The Axel TV Show (1 March 1965)
Tracks 5-9 from reel-to-reel home tape recordings (Note: sound quality
is
fair but listenable)
Special Bonus!
10. Kingscrost Lecture (December 1941)
The earliest known recording of Clellan Card as Axel, plus the earliest
known Birdie!
From a transcription disc recorded for a Northrup King sales presentation